Sunday, November 1, 2009

From Kent 10/26

Y los desafíos vienen

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¡Hola Familia de mí!

Sounds like it's busyness (business?) ville up there, what with all the shenanigans and goings-on. Best of luck with the Wiggle! It's great to have Notorious coming back, they're fantastic! Too bad to hear that there are struggles with SYTYCD :(, it truly would not be the same w/o Mia.

We've stumbled all upon an obstacle. Juaqin, who was to be baptized yesterday was not. Friday evening when we were over at the house of his grandparents that were taking care of him to iron out details of the service, etc., his mom came a knocking at the door. Apparently his mother isn't the most stable as far as her word goes. Though we had been given permission from both his parents, his mom decided that it wasn't a good idea (I'm quite certain it had much more to do with troubles and angst betwixt her and her parents.) So she took Juaqin back to live with her (which is only a few blocks away). We went over to talk with her Saturday about the whole thing, she was in better spirits, said that she didn't have a problem with him going to church but still didn't think he was old enough to make a decision such as baptism (which is odd because she's a member, though hasn't really been active for 9 or 10 years). When we came to pick him up for church they weren't home. :(. We continue to pray for him, but things look bleak for the moment.

One of our more promising new investigators is Escarlet (It's against the rules in Spanish to have a word start with an S then a consonant, so you throw an E in front), she's 14 and was pretty interested in the church and wants to get baptized. Both her and her mom have a date for the 15th of November.

Good news! One of our eternal investigators, a boy named Diego, 12 years came to church yesterday! His parents are members, but aren't very active, and he trangled himself to church all on his lonesome and wants to get baptized! We went over the interview questions with him and he seems ready, but we still need to have the actual interview, and he could be baptized this Sunday, along with Habraham!

Onésima is still having a bit of a hard time with coming to Church, her husband is still not liking the whole thing and she's scared to come. On the good side, we did run into him in the street last week and he was very friendly toward us, which is a bit of a change. Hopefully we can get with him and explain a bit more about the church and things will work.

Yoselin had work (blast) and wasn't able to come to church this week, but we met with her later yesterday and had a great lesson of'bout the restoration and her mother and brother stayed and listened for the whole thing as well (usually they go off to their rooms/kitchen and do other things) We exhorted her to do her readings, she hadn't really done any this last week, so we exhorted Alexandra and Yoselin to read together (Alexandra is her sister that's a recent convert) Hopefully that will work well!

Things are starting to heat up, and summer is on its way (though it did rain for 2 1/2 days straight, which was very cold) I had my first mini-exchange over into the Chiguayante Chiguayante sector, it was very strange being with an Elder who spoke English as well. He had only been in the mission 3 months, so it was a bit tricky for the both of us, but we managed. My Spanish is getting a lot better, I'm able to understand people a lot more, though questions are still tricky because each word is important.

I saw the Qüeca (no idea how to spell it) which is the national dance of Chile while on my mini-cambio. From my understanding it's a dance that EVERYBODY knows like the pledge of allegiance, and it's not that simple. Not at all, I don't know how to really describe it, there's a lot of fancy foot work from the men, quick kicking and stomping, both waving around handkerchief type things. Slightly flamenco, but far more...Mexican? I don't know, but very interesting, I like. I won't of course be able to learn it though :(, but oh well. I heard a first while on my mini-cambio. One of the families said that I looked just like Arnold Schwerzenegger (minus muscles of course). Though I denied it they wouldn't hear it. So that's what they called me the rest of the night, Elder Schwerzenegger.

Last Tuesday we ran into a former investigator that had moved away right before being ready for baptism, I can't remember the name, it was really tricky, but she's 12 I believe and her Dad was ready for baptism too!(Yay, men in the church!) They're back in Tierra Bella and had set a date for the 15th!

Breakthrough with another eternal investigator, Hector. His whole family has been Catholic their whole life, but one of their sons (Yonatan I believe, I still have trouble with names) but from my understanding his mom passed away recently and so he was willing to listen more and religion had become a bigger topic of discussion. He feels good about the Church,he's seen a lot of the positive changes it's made in his son, and felt really good about the Plan of Salvation, which we went over with him. He's a bit hesitant because he doesn't want to turn his back on part of who he and his family have been for the past 40+ years, but felt more comfortable after I had explained that he's not turning his back on God, that the Catholic church had helped him come to know Him and that now God has more and wants more for him. It's an addition to that which he already knows.

Postal service is slow, I received that first letter that you sent and wanted to be waiting for me a week ago, but haven't received anything else, just been going off of the confirmation emails. The water here is good, no worries about that it's safe to drink from the tap. As for the toilets flushing they don't go the other direction, they don't go any direction actually, it's just a mess of splashing.